BioWare, Pandemic: EA Deal Good for Fans

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The studios tell us why they're excited to be a part of EA Games.

By Daemon Hatfield

As soon as IGN posted the news about Electronic Arts acquiring BioWare and Pandemic yesterday, our comments field exploded with concerns that the quality of the studios' offerings would suffer under the monolithic publisher. The three companies aren't complete strangers, though, as John Riccitiello, EA's CEO, spent time as President and Chief Operating Officer of Elevation Partners, owner of VG Holding Partners, owner of BioWare and Pandemic (whew!).

The heads of both studios (Josh Resnick/Andrew Goldman of Pandemic and Greg Zeschuk/Ray Muzyka of BioWare) took some time to discuss the deal with IGN and explain why they think it's good news for them and their fans.

Pandemic's Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick"What I would point out to [the fans] is actually the original combination, the original vision behind bringing Pandemic and BioWare together was developed in collaboration with John Riccitiello," says Pandemic's Josh Resnick. "And that same John is now running EA. He is bringing us into the fold and partnering with us because of the work we did over the last two years. That work included bringing the best talent possible to both BioWare and Pandemic and investing heavily in building very innovative and creative and compelling original IPs. That's why he's partnering with us now. He wants to continue that vision of us being an independent studio with an independent, entrepreneurial culture. And he wants to just support us in continuing to invest in those original IPs and our talent and bring that together with the publishing muscle of EA. What an amazing combination. Actually, we see consumers really being the big winners here. They're gonna get all the same great work that we've been doing for a while and our products, and even more so. We're excited for us and our employees and EA but most importantly our fans.

BioWare's Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk"Everybody finds it hard to believe that we are going to remain independent but we really are. We're still Pandemic here and we're just inside of EA Games."

"What we're about is making great games and that's not going to change," said Greg Zeschuk of BioWare. "Ray and I have been doing this for almost 15 years now and we've been very fortunate to make some really seminal games in the role-playing game space. We really think that this move -- we believe in the vision. We believe in the opportunity this gives us and the chance to stretch our wings and do even more. We're excited about what John is bringing to the table. We of course worked with him when he was the CEO of BioWare and Pandemic. We believe in where things are going and we think BioWare can be even stronger in the future."

"One of the things we've learned working with John is we share the same values," said Ray Muzyka. "We're excited to be part of the team that John's building. We share the same vision. So we're really excited to join the EA Games label."

Creative Control

IGN asked both studios if the terms of the purchase allowed them to maintain complete creative control of their projects.

"We were an independent developer in control of all our products and our dev team," said Pandemic's Andrew Goldman. "Now we see ourselves as an independent brand inside of EA Games. And as the leaders of the independent brand we are still in control of the projects we're making. Nothing is really changing here other than we're getting the support of a very large organization to help us make our products better."

"Well, I would say we have a very strong vision for what we want to create and how we're going to create it," BioWare's Greg Zeschuk told us. "That's certainly not going to change. What's exciting for us is we get great partners to collaborate with on this. Frank Gibeau, the President of EA Games that we'll be reporting in to, we have great respect for him. He's a huge gamer, makes us even ashamed as serious gamers. He's a really great guy and loves what we do. It's actually going to be a great opportunity for collaboration. Our teams really do control their destiny. I think this gives us a chance to do even more things."

"I think another way to look at is the integration of great development teams and marketing capabilities already present within BioWare," said Ray Muzyka. "Combine that with even more marketing resources, sales resources, distribution, direct consumer relationships that EA brings as the world's biggest, best publisher. When you combine those two together, we are part of the team that is going to be delivering some of the best experiences, some of the best story-driven games in the world. That's what we're always striving to do at BioWare and that is not changing at all."